Pool Party
Pool Party is the fourth episode of the first season of Lizzie McGuire. Plot Lizzie and Miranda are ecstatic about being invited to a pool party given by their heartthrob, Danny Kessler. Mrs. McGuire is excited for Lizzie too until she finds out it's on the same day as grandma's 80th birthday party. She tells Lizzie she has to go to her grandma's instead and Lizzie is furious. The next day at school Miranda temporarily gets on the good side of Kate, the girl's former best friend who has literally and figuratively outgrown them. Kate invites Miranda to hang out with her crowd, causing a conflict between Miranda and Lizzie. At home Lizzie catches her mom on the phone making up a lie to get out of a commitment and accuses her of being a hypocrite. Gordo helps Lizzie to smooth over her differences with Miranda. Mom tells Lizzie she can go to the party after all, but she decides not to and spends the day with Gordo. Trivia *When "Pool Party" was originally broadcast, many TV listings identified the episode name as "Pilot," and it does appear that this was supposed to be the first show of the series, as all the characters are identified by name and description in the first few minutes. This is the only episode of Lizzie... on which the show creator Terri Minsky is also listed as executive producer. *The episode was filmed from March 20 to March 24, 2000. *We learn that Kate, Lizzie, and Miranda used to be friends, but when Kate went through puberty, she became popular and outgrew them. *This episode is mentioned in My Fair Larry, when Lizzie reminds Gordo how devastated he was when Danny didntt invite him to the huge pool party. *Terri Minsky was nominated for the 2002 WGA Award (TV) for "Children's Script" for this episode. *In this episode, Gordo's voice is higher. It wasn't developed like in all the other episodes. It's likely this one was shot a few months before the others, so his voice deepened during those months. *Toon Lizzie is based on Greek Chorus, whereby she informs the audience as to what is going on in the show. *Stan Rogow based the editing style used in Lizzie McGuire on the German film, "Run Lola Run." *According to Jo McGuire's calendar, Danny's pool party was supposed to be on May 20, 2000. *The stock footage of the exterior of Lizzie's school has also been used in "7th Heaven" and "Even Stevens". *This is the last episode featuring Danny Kessler (Byron Fox) and one of only three he appeared in. Actually, it was filmed before the other two, "Rumors" and "When Moms Attack," but it wasn't shown until they had already aired. After this, Ethan Craft moved into the role of the girls' heartthrob. *A real house was used as the McGuire's home in the filming of the pilot episode. It also served as the home of the Burnham family in the 1999 movie, "American Beauty". A different set was used for the filming of subsequent episodes. *This episode, the first Lizzie McGuire ever made, is only one of two episodes that doesn't contain a "blooper reel" of outtakes at the end of the show, the other being "Between a Rock and a Bra Place." *Gordo mentions that both his parents are psychiatrists. *Lizzie says she's known Gordo since she was one day old, indicating that his birthday comes before hers. Goofs *After Danny Kessler invites Lizzie and Miranda to his pool party, Miranda looks directly at the camera. *When Lizzie is thinking to herself, "It's okay. It's okay. I don't need my mother. I don't need my best friend," the book open next to her is "The Golden Book Encyclopedia, Volume III - Boats to Cereals". Pictured are Lewis Carroll, George Washington Carver, and the Caspian Sea. When Lizzie says, "I don't need anybody," the same book is open to an earlier page. It shows the illustrations from the article about candy. *When Kate walks toward Miranda in the school hallway, the shoulder strap on her bag is in across her chest, in the next shot it is beside her chest and in the following shots it's once again across her chest. *The exterior shots of the McGuire house show a white fence around it, but the fence seen on the soundstage has the natural appearance of wood. *Nitpick: The calendar hanging on the refrigerator is turned to the month of May instead of one of the fall months. This seems odd since the early episodes make it appear that the first season begins with the start of the school year. *Lizzie is shown in a camera shot from the inside of her locker, where she takes off a bracelet and hangs it up. In the next shot from a camera angle outside the locker, the pictures and other contents of the locker are different. Then when the camera goes back to the inside shot, the bracelet is no longer hanging there. *In this episode, the girls' gym uniforms are grey, but in other episodes, they are blue. *Lizzie says she'll feed Matt's book to his gerbils, but there is never any mention of gerbils or any pet after that. External links *Pool Party on Internet Movie Database *Pool Party on TV.com Category:Episodes Category:Season 1